LAPPEENRANTA-LAHTI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY LUT School of Business and Management
Business Administration Master’s Thesis
Emilia Ruusunen
The alignment of sales and marketing in order to provide successful data driven marketing to support B2B sales in the tech field
Examiners: Professor Anssi Tarkianen
ABSTRACT
Author: Emilia Ruusunen
Title: The alignment of sales and marketing in order to provide
successful data driven marketing to support B2B sales in the tech field
Faculty: LUT School of Business and Management Major: International Marketing Management
Year: 2021
Master’s Thesis: Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT Examiners: Prof. Anssi Tarkiainen
Keywords: Sales and marketing alignment, marketing automation, lead management, lead generation, technology adoption, B2B companies, CRM
Today’s companies are facing major changes in sales and marketing. The traditional ways of doing business will be too expensive and slow phased in the future. Thus, companies must aim to automate processes and generate data-driven marketing. The working collaboration between sales and marketing functions is necessary for the successful data-driven marketing. World has faced major changes during the Covid pandemic, which has been a great evidence for companies about the urgent need to move towards digital and automated processes.
This study will look at the marketing and sales alignment as well as marketing automation level in 5 case companies in order to understand how well tech companies in the B2B field have adopted automation and sales & marketing co-operation in order to create data-driven marketing. The study was conducted as a qualitative research and multiple case study with semi- structured interviews for marketing and sales managers. These people can be seen as key persons when considering the sales & marketing alignment or adaption of marketing automation. The findings point out the diversity between case companies. The study found that two case companies had a modern and automated sales and marketing pipeline with a synergetic co- operation.
Tiivistelmä
Tekijä: Emilia Ruusunen
Tutkielman nimi: Myynnin ja markkinoinnin yhdistäminen tuloksellisen data ohjautuvan markkinoinnin mahdollistamiseksi B2B teknologia alalla
Tiedekunta: School of Business and Management Pääaine: International Marketing Management
Vuosi: 2021
Pro gradu tutkielma: Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology LUT Tarkastajat: Professori Anssi Tarkiainen
Avainsanat: Myynti, markkinointi, markkinointiautomaatio, teknologian adoptointi, asiakassuhteen johtaminen
Yritykset kohtaavat suuria muutoksia myynnin ja markkinoinnin saralla. Perinteinen tapa tehdä kauppaa on liian kallista ja hidastempoista tulevaisuudessa. Tämän takia yritysten on pyrittävä automatisoimaan prosessejaan ja luomaan data ohjautuvaa markkinointia. Toimiva yhteistyö myynnin ja markkinoinnin välillä on välttämätön, jotta pystytään varmistamaan menestyksekäs data ohjautuva markkinointi. Koronaviruspandemian tuomat globaalit muutokset ovat toimineet erinomaisena todisteena perinteisille yrityksille tarpeesta digitalisoitua ja automatisoida prosesseja.
Tämä tutkimus paneutuu markkinoinnin ja myynnin yhteistyöhön sekä markkinoinnin automaation tasoon viidessä case yrityksessä, jotta voidaan ymmärtää kuinka hyvin teknologia alan yritykset B2B kentässä ovat hyödyntäneet myynnin ja markkinoinnin yhteistyötä sekä automatiota luodakseen data ohjautuvaa markkinointia. Tutkimus on laadullinen tutkimus, joka sisälsi viisi case yritystä. Haastateltavina ovat toimineet myynti- sekä markkinointipäälliköt, joiden voidaan nähdä olevan avainhenkilöitä niin myynnin & markkinoinnin yhteistyötä edistettäessä, kuin myös automaation adoptoinnissa. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat laajan diversiteetin case yritysten välillä. Vain kaksi yritystä viidestä oli modernisti automatisoinut markkinointiaan sekä panosti tulokselliseen myynnin ja markkinoinnin yhteistyöhön.
Acknowledgements
This project has been an excellent opportunity to deepen my knowledge in marketing and sales in the fascinating tech field. When the whole thesis project comes to an end it also means the end for my amazing journey in LUT University.
Before the graduation I would like to thank the people, who supported me from the bottom of my heart. This paper would never be finished without the support of the Professor Anssi Tarkiainen. Also, a big thanks to all the wonderful interviewees who gave their effort for this thesis by providing their insights and ideas in the interviews.
Last but not least I want to say thank you for my friends and family for their endless support with this project as any other dreams I decide to pursue.
Thank you!
List of symbols and abbreviations
B2B, Business-to-Business
CRM, Customer Relationship Management MQL, Marketing Qualified Lead
SQL, Sales Qualified Lead SLA, Service level agreement
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1. Research Questions and Objectives for the Research ... 2
1.2. Literature review ... 3
1.3. Theoretical Framework ... 8
1.4. Concept definitions ... 9
1.5. Delimitations ... 10
1.6. Research Methodology ... 11
2. THEORY ... 12
2.1. THE ALIGNMENT OF SALES ANG MARKETING ... 12
2.1.1. Sales & marketing funnel ... 13
2.1.2. Main issues between the co-operation ... 17
2.1.3. Benefits of the alignment ... 19
2.2. MARKETING AUTOMATION ... 20
2.2.1. Definition ... 21
2.2.2. Features ... 22
2.2.3. Use of marketing automation ... 23
2.2.4. CRM aspect ... 25
2.2.5. Lead management ... 26
2.2.6. Best practices & benefits for the business ... 29
3. RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA ... 32
3.1. Case study ... 33
3.2. Research context ... 33
3.3. Data collection ... 34
4. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ... 36
4.1. Case companies ... 36
4.2. Marketing automation as an enabler of data-driven marketing ... 38
4.3. The alignment of sales and marketing in B2B tech field ... 40
4.4. The impact of the marketing automation to lead management ... 46
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ... 50
5.1. Summary of the Findings ... 50
5.2. Theoretical implications ... 57
5.3. Managerial Implications... 57
5.4. Limitations and Future Research ... 59
REFERENCES ... 61
1 1. Introduction
The rise of technology development and digitalization are shaping the way that successful sales and marketing are done nowadays. The future of organizations that do not keep up with the demands of technological development in sales, may look unappealing. Many sales organizations are struggling with matters such as the huge amount of data, fragmentation of the demand, complexity of customer lifecycle and constant changes in buying processes. The only modern way to manage all that can be found from the automation of marketing and data driven sales. This has brought increasing interest for marketing automation especially in the B2B field.
(Burka 2015; Todor 2016; Järvinen & Taiminen 2016)
Although marketing automation provides various advantages for sales, it also requires resources.
In order to provide data-driven marketing with the help of marketing automation the sales and marketing functions must collide. (Järvinen et al 2016) The integration between marketing and sales is a bigger challenge than it seems at first, though it appears as a basic requirement for any well-functioning company. Besides it is obvious that the higher level of cooperation will bring benefits for companies.
The benefits of the alignment between sales and marketing functions are unquestionable. Yet many companies struggle to combine those two in order to unleash the true potential for the business. The best practices in sales has been studied for decades but in general, both marketing and sales do not unite much in theory. Even though the data driven business is a highly relevant topic in today’s fast phased digital environment, the scientific research is far behind. In former literature there are no theories that would combine marketing automation with sales funnel management or lead management. The state of the literature is yet exceedingly nascent and only little is known about the way that B2B firms can exploit marketing automation in each part of the sales funnel (Järvinen et al 2016). Thus, it can be stated that there are no best practices for B2B companies to provide successful data-driven marketing to support B2B sales.
A working relationship between these two departments is crucial for the marketing automation system to be able to generate better results. Improved outcomes within the usage of marketing automation mean increased amount of superior leads, which will eventually generate higher
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revenue for the company more effectively than before. (Järvinen et al 2016) Marketing automation tools are used in the B2B sector as an attempt to achieve competitive advantage and also to improve the customer experience. Both of these goals are equally matched to marketing and sales functions. When the business is based ona higher level of automation both marketing and sales are able to focus on their core competences without wasting time on routine tasks that could be done by a computer. In fact, many of those tasks could be done way more effectively with better results by a computer instead of a human. As marketing automation is daily business for most medium to large scale companies in today’s world, the research and literature should reflect more on this trend.
This research is structured in a following way. First the introduction will outline the research questions and key concepts of the study to get reader on the same page with the writer. It also includes the methodology and delimitations for the study. The second part is the theoretical part which can be roughly divided into theory of marketing automation and theory of sales and marketing alignment. After theory the empirical study will be introduced and defined. The conclusions will give an answer to each of the research questions combining both former literature and results from the empirical part. In the end managerial implications and further research ideas will be discussed briefly.
1.1. Research Questions and Objectives for the Research
The aim for the study is to offer the knowledge about the benefits of the data driven marketing in B2B companies. This has to happen through understanding firstly the role of marketing in the sales processes, and secondly marketing automation as a part of the whole process. To achieve the main goal the research defines the benefits of automated marketing processes in a way that those become understandable not just for marketing people, but to anyone who desires to create a successful sales funnel for their B2B business.
Previous literature has had a focus on sales and marketing integration during last few decades, while marketing automation has been studied mainly on the last two decades. There are very few studies that have combined these two topics together. Järvinen and Taiminen (2016) have
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been studying sales and marketing alignment and marketing automation adaption in order to improve content marketing strategies in the B2B field. This study does not apply the content marketing perspective, but rather highlights the overall benefits for the business.
The scientific goal of this study is to be able to understand better how the new technology adoption with marketing automation has affected for the alignment between sales and marketing functions. As marketing automation is quite blur and almost abstract concept for many sales people, it might be possible that it would not be fully understood and thereby thought to be something not worthy to use in business. However, marketing automation provides a possibility to justify each marketing action and returns on investments, which should be very tempting information for executives of the company. The managerial goal on the other hand is to prove to B2B companies that the data driven marketing is worth the investment because with it is possible to create way more opportunities for sales than the traditional way of marketing.
The research question is the following:
How do B2B tech companies align marketing and sales departments when developing data- driven marketing with marketing automation?”
These sub-questions are helping to fulfill the answer for the first research question:
What are the failure points in sales and marketing co-operation?
How do companies use marketing automation in developing their lead management systems?
1.2. Literature review
The aim of this literature review is to give reader a compendium about the former literature of the main topics of this paper (De Chastelain Library Guides, 2020). The literature of this thesis is roughly divided in two parts; first part is about the alignment of sales and marketing and second part is the theory of marketing automation. Thus, this literature review is also divided into two parts.
4 Marketing automation
Marketing automation is a software that increases the overall efficiency of marketing by automating the basic marketing processes (Heimbach et al. 2015, Keens & Barker 2009).
Marketing automation is the base for the data driven marketing because with such platform it is possible to collect, analyze and utilize data in such efficiency which is not possible for humans (Wood 2015).
Marketing automation is relatively new topic in the literature. Marketing automation as a term was used already in 1990’s. Some of the first mentions was from Buckling et al. (1998) saying that in the future some proportion of marketing decisions may be automated (Bucklin, Lehmann
& Little 1998). Already then it was discussed that there is a possibility to increase the effectiveness in marketing by the help of the automation platforms (Buckling et al 1998). By that time marketing automation was seen as a part of CRM functions (Biegel 2009; Kumar 2011). The term “marketing automation” was first time introduced by John D. C. Little on 2001 (Heimbach et al. 2015)
In today’s business the marketing automation platforms idea is to attract customers in each part of customer buying cycle. Within automated system it is easy to offer timely content to each and every customer no matter in which part of the cycle they are at that time. (Järvinen &
Taiminen 2016) While customers are consuming content the company will receive data from each and every action. It is clear that the amount of data is incomprehensible, and also something that could not be handled by humans, thus the marketing automation platform will structure and analyze the data in understandable form. This will improve the accuracy of reporting, since the huge amount of exact data available. (Redding 2015)
Marketing automation software combines the information from multiple sources, such as e-mail marketing, social media, website traffic, SEM & SEO and analytics (Burka 2015). The figure Y illustrates the combination of different sources of information for marketing automation platform.
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Figure 1. Combination of the main marketing automation information sources. Adapted from Burka (2015).
Marketing automation software will determine the digital footprint for each prospect and customer. After recognizing the personal path of each customer, it is easier for companies to offer timely content for each customer. (Järvinen et al. 2016) As marketing automation operates in real time within each touchpoint, the system will be able to carry out right operations in a timely matter (Heimbach et al. 2015). Marketing automation platform can be used in multiple operations such as customer segmentation, data integration, project management, lead management, budgeting, analytics and customer engagement. Also, the overall campaign management from the planning to the execution can be done by marketing automation platform.
(Keens & Barker 2009)
Customer relationship aspect for marketing automation
There is no solid understanding in literature whether the marketing automation is a part of CRM or even more. As CRM is usually seen as a strategy which involves different technologies and
Marketing automation
Social media
Web
SEM & SEO Analytics & reports
E-mail marketing
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outlooks to improve the relationship with customers (Greenberg, 2010). Redding (2015) explains that it is very difficult to compartmentalize the marketing automation to the CRM since vendors of the software keep expanding the new features, by creating even bigger entireties than CRM. Heimbach et al. (2015) describes the role of marketing automation to be more than just CRM, because it exceeds the discipline by utilizing data from various sources and establishing it in a real-time communication. Though it is argued that marketing automation does not cover the information from sales part of the funnel and is there by lacking information to become a whole CRM (Estrada 2015). In generally it is recommended to integrate the marketing automation platform with some CRM software for the sales (Dworkin 2016). The integration between the two functions, sales and marketing, will be in a challenging position to carry out successful integration. Not to mention the operational IT challenges within this kind of integration. (Järvinen et al. 2016)
The alignment of sales and marketing
The co-operation between sales and marketing have been extensively studied topic within last decades. Most of the studies aim to point out how collaboration between these two departments effects on the overall business performance in a very positive way. (Meunier-Fitz Hugh & Piercy 2013) There are still some different opinions about the reasons that causes the disagreements between sales and marketing. Meunier-Fitz Hugh & Piercy (2007) have noted that there are three main types of reasons for this: facilitators, integrators and management attitudes. On the other hand, Kotler et al (2006) have divided the reasons within two categories; economic reasons and cultural reasons.
In literature it is very unanimous image that one of the main issues between sales and marketing is the lack of follow-up of marketing generated leads (Kotler et al 2006; Churchill, Ford &
Walker 2003). In general, the whole interface between marketing and sales seems to be quite difficult to be well-functioning. Marketing is expected to create leads for sales, but then sales complain about the lead quality where marketing answers by blaming the poorly done follow- ups. (Homburg, Jensen & Krohmer 2008) Despite the known unhelpful impact of poor lead
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management to the company’s performance the former literature has not paid much attention to the causes or cures for the phenomena (Sabnis G. et al 2013).
Atteya (2012) demonstrates how the only way of bringing sales and marketing co-operation to the next level is to increase the level of alignment. This could be done by identifying and agreeing on the attributes of the sales opportunities. Both departments should centralize their doing towards the same goals. (Atteya 2012)
The sales & marketing funnel
The sales & marketing funnel outlines the B2B selling process inside the company (Kotler et al.
2006, 77). The funnel is usually seen as a narrowing funnel since the amount of companies within every stage will decrease the further they move on the funnel. By tracking the funnel process, it is possible for the company to improve their selling processes by adapting the cumulative knowledge in practice. (D’Haen & Van den Poel 2013) It is important to figure out what is the reason when a lead drops out from the funnel. There can be a better offer from competitor or change in the buyers intentions. (Söhnchen & Albers 2010) The main goal for the funnel is to divide customers during their buying process based on their purchasing stage. The funnel also usually points out the division of responsibilities between marketing and sales departments. (Kotler et al. 2006, 77)
The former literature has presented quite a few different sales & marketing funnels (Söhnchen et al 2010). Some of the best-known ones are created by D'Haen et al. (2013), Kotler et al. (2006) and Söchnchen et al. (2010). D’Haen et al (2013) proposes the idea of four-phased funnel including following phases: suspect, prospect, lead and customer. Söchnchen et al. (2010) on the other hand presents funnel with 6 steps: qualification, approach, product presentation, design of an offer, handling objections and closure. Very famous theory for sales funnel is created by Kotler et al. (2006). “The traditional sales funnel” has over all eight stages: customer awareness, brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference, purchase intention, purchase, customer loyalty and customer advocacy. First four stages of the list above are under marketing functions and last four belongs to the sales side. (Kotler et al. 2006)
8 1.3. Theoretical Framework
Figure 2. Theoretical framework of this study.
The theoretical framework is built upon three main factors: sales, marketing and data. In today’s marketing and sales environments everything is driven on data. For example, customer relation management, sales funnels and marketing automation are heavily relying on data. Only by combining all three main factors can a company perform successful data driven marketing to support the sales. The data as a factor relies heavily upon IT infrastructures. Thus, the most important software, marketing automation and CRM platform, are very much dependent of the IT infrastructures. Marketing cannot apply the outcomes from marketing automation without the
9 1.4. Concept definitions
In this part the most important concepts for the study are presented in this section. One of the key reasons to write down the concepts at this point is to introduce these concepts to the reader from the author’s point of view. This way it is possible for reader to understand the idea better.
As this study is based on marketing and sales in B2B companies, the B2B concept will be shortly explained. Sales funnel is an important part of the study and also a part of customer relation management. Thus, customer relationship management will be also briefly introduced.
B2B marketing and sales
B2B as a term means commerce between companies (Fill & Fill 2005). B2B markets are for goods that are bought by other businesses, institutions and governments for their own consumption, use incorporation or for them to resell those. (Hutt & Speh 2013, 4) B2B Companies may offer materials, parts or services for other firms who then serve the consumers in order to make profits (Uzialko 2017). Only within the last three decades has the literature of B2B marketing started to expand. Nevertheless, since organizations were first created, trade between organizations has been around. And this of course means that for centuries, B2B marketing has already existed, but not in literature. (Hadjikhani & LaPlaca 2013)
B2B markets are generally characterized by having a smaller audience compared to B2C (Business to consumers). The value of partnerships is a core feature of B2B marketing. The formation and maintenance of relationships is a central element of the corporate strategy for B2B businesses. (Fill & Fill 2005) Firms may see customers as assets while identifying, initiating, developing and maintaining profitable relationships to them (Hutt & Speh 2013, 10- 11). The buying process in B2B may be several years long while the number of resources involved in the transaction can be major. The seller is in generally encouraged to build a trustful and direct relationship with the target customer.
Some main features that separates B2B markets from B2C markets include for example the bigger purchase value, technically more complex goods, increased risk for buyers, longer time of the buying process, complex decision-making process, professional purchasing, close
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relationships between buyer and seller, derived demand and reciprocity. (Minett 2002, 3) B2B markets are often distinguished by typically having a smaller audience relative to the B2C industry (Fill & Fill 2005).
CRM
There is no full consensus in the literature about the customer relation management as a definition although the word has been used already from the beginning of the 1900 (D’Haen &
Van den Poel 2003). CRM is in generally defined as a cross functional and strategic approach to build profitable relations to customers (Payne, Adrian & Frow 2005). CRM is repeatedly linked into new customer acquisition and customer retention, as well as maximizing long-term customer value (D’Haen & Van den Poel 2003). CRM can be described as a business strategy which aims to profitability, increase of income, improvement of customer satisfaction and optimization of the use of customer-centric processes. CRM is also described as a combination of people, process and technology when the goal is to get closer to customers (Chen & Popovich 2003).
CRM as a term can be also understood as a CRM system. CRM systems are software that aims to improve the customer relation management. CRM systems are originated from the sales automation and relationship marketing. (Chen & Popovich 2003). If CRM is understood as a technological concept the main goal is to facilitate the contact between sales and customers (Peelen 2005). In this case CRM includes multiple software applications from sales to customer service (Buttle & Maklan
2015).
1.5. Delimitations
This study focuses on companies operating in Finnish B2B Technology industry that are currently using some kind of sales funnel in order to identify their customer journey and improve the lead management system. Each company also uses some marketing automation system or is about to implement such system for their use. The current literature is still quite broad and has
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not been able to study data driven marketing and marketing automation as a part of the sales funnel in wider context yet.
This study is carried out only from the company’s and more specifically from the sales function’s perspective. This study does not deal with the customer’s perspective of the chosen topic. It has been recognized in the literature that marketing automation and the alignment of sales and marketing are very much beneficial for the customers too. It is also clear that the topics that are handled in this paper might have very similar affects in B2C field, but this study is built on only for the B2B perspective and cannot be utilized in B2C field because of the wide differences of the sales and marketing process.
As each of the companies have their own way of understanding and defining the sales funnel, it is carefully considered that the author/interviewee and the representors of the case companies understand each other’s well enough to avoid any miss communication. The study relies on the strategic side rather than the operational one. This is why there is no deeper investigation about the usage of the marketing automation platforms or any other similar platforms.
1.6. Research Methodology
This study has a qualitative research method. The research is carried out with a multiple-case study strategy in order to construct as impeccable answers as possible, but still retain the broad perspective for the whole tech field. In single case study there would have been too big risk to jump in to conclusions only based on one case. With the current research strategy this research can be implemented very extensively to the Finnish B2B companies in tech field.
The data for the study is collected via interviews for the companies’ sales and marketing managers or leaders. In generally the interviewee has to have a good insight for the company’s strategic decisions for sales and marketing, in order to be able to justify the decisions. The interviews are semi structured and follows the interview script where applicable. The interviews are turned in to text with Screencast-o-matic software in order to be able to study the interviews better.
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2. Theory
The theory part consists of two topics that will be combined in the study. The two main topics in the theory part are the alignment of sales & marketing and marketing automation. In order to study how the alignment of sales and marketing would support the sales outcomes with data driven marketing it is necessary to combine the theories within both fields.
In the first theory part, the alignment of sales and marketing, is divided into three sections: Sales
& marketing funnel, main issues between the co-operation and benefits of the alignment. In the second part the marketing automation is divided into definition, features, use of marketing automation, CRM aspect, lead management and best practices. After introducing all these topics to reader, it is very effortless for the reader to understand the empiric part of this study.
2.1. The alignment of sales ang marketing
This chapter reviews literature on B2B sales and the alignment of sales and marketing functions.
A functional alignment between sales and marketing functions has been described to be very challenging to create many times (Homburg et al. 2008; Atteya 2012). Thus, it is unarguable that the benefits from the alignment will have an overall effect on the business performance (Meunier-Fitz et al. 2013) Over the last few years, both marketing and sales functions have transformed rapidly. Marketing was traditionally able to rely on advertisements in order to generate leads for the sales. In today’s fast phased world this is not enough anymore, and sales and marketing have to be able to own the whole customer’s purchase journey. (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, 2020a.)
“Sales and Marketing share more than just a C-level executive – they also share goals, technologies, and processes that allow them to monitor and optimize every stage of every sale, from first touch to closed deal.” – Oracle
2020
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Salesforce (2020) highlights how nowadays the reality is that there is no successful business without a cooperation between sales and marketing. Marketing must know more of sales and vice versa, but most importantly everyone in the company has to know more about customers.
(Salesforce 2020) A prerequisite for a working automation loop is marketing and sales integration. Järvinen et al. (2015) argues that the closer partnership between these departments is, it helps marketing in creating better leads and thus generating more revenue for the company with the help of automation. Co-operation between the two departments should start from the planning, in order to be able to exploit the techniques of automation in the best possible ways.
(Järvinen et al. 2015)
In this chapter is described first the theory of sales and marketing funnel as it is very central concept of this topic and in many cases a key to successful alignment. After that will be pointed out some reasons for the lack of co-operation between sales and marketing. The last chapter will point out the benefits of the alignment for both functions and the whole organization.
2.1.1. Sales & marketing funnel
During the last decades there has been a drastic change in the sales funnel and lead generation processes. Digital marketing, artificial intelligence and customer relation management have developed enormously fast and allowed marketers and sales people to step up their game, while also customers have had major changes in their buying behavior. (Salesforce 2019) As the sales
& marketing funnel constructs the whole B2B sales process within a company it is very crucial that the two departments are well aligned in order to create a coherent customer experience. This kind of customer experience can only arise from cooperation and departments supporting each other’s. (Kotler et al. 2006, 77; Weir 2018)
It is clear that one of the top sales priorities is to improve the efficiency of the sales funnel (Pipedrive 2020). The customer has changed more in the past 10 years than in the past 100 years, which forces companies to re-think the marketing & sales processes all over again. The modern buyer is in control of the process. He/she is digitally driven, has access to an enormous amount of knowledge, socially connected, mobile and empowered. (Salesforce 2020) The changing
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customer expectations and buyers increasing control means that marketing & sales funnel strategies must evolve (Salesforce 2019).
The sales funnel is typically pictured as a narrowing funnel. It is pictured in such way because the amount of people in each level will decrease within each step they pass further on the funnel.
(D’Haen & Van den Poel 2013) The sales funnel can be seen as a staple of the sales culture as it shows what is the mission for each employee in the sales, starting from the sales reps until all the way to the CEO (HubSpot a2020) The amount of the steps/levels on the funnel varies a lot between different theories. To have a quite comprehensive look at the different theories three very well-known funnels are introduced below.
The first funnel is a four-phase funnel concept by D'Haen et al. (2013), which includes four steps: suspect, prospect, lead and client. The second funnel model is intoruced by Söchnchen et al. (2010) and it is built upon 6 steps: qualification, approach, introduction of the offering, offer design, managing objections and closure. The third funnel is created by Kotler et al. (2006) “The traditional sales funnel”. This funnel includes up to eight stages: customer awareness, brand awareness, brand consideration, brand preference, purchase intention, purchase, customer loyalty and customer advocacy. First four stages belong under marketing functions and last four to the sales. (Kotler et al. 2006) This is the only one of the funnels which very clearly divides the stages between sales and marketing.
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Figure 3, 4 & 5. Different sales funnels. Adapted from D'Haen et al. (2013), Söchnchen et al.
(2010) and Kotler et al. (2006).
One of the key parts of the marketing & sales funnel is the lead management. Depending on the company, the requirements for a profitable lead differ and thus those should be set within each company itself (Järvinen et al. 2015). It is highly crucial for a company to acknowledge the factors needed for a lead formation, but regardless 68 percent of businesses have not yet
• Customer awareness
• Brand awareness
• Brand consideration
• Brand preference
• Suspect
• Prospect
• Lead
• Customer/deal
• Customer loyalty
• Customer advocacy
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identified their sales funnels, and thus are unable to identify the whole customer journey or qualify leads that actually help their business (Pipedrive, 2020).
The following data may be required for a lead formation: source of the prospect, interest rate of the prospect, funds & position in decision-making, willingness to exchange information, initiator (customer or sales person) and previous business with the client company. (D’Haen et al. 2013, Monat 2011) Organizations should consider the lead management process to be a nonstop development. The new cumulative knowledge from the whole funnel process should be constantly adjusted in action. (D’Haen & Van den Poel 2013)
Many sources highlight the importance of B2B sales and marketing team’s alignment in their views on lead generation as a whole (Salesforce 2019). The first step towards the common lead funnel would be to agree upon what is the ideal customer. The potential audience has to be well outlined before marketing can be profitable. In the worst scenario marketing will allocate all resources into wrong target group. (Kotler 2006) After the ideal customers are identified it is also important to figure out the reasons behind the failed sales, and by that meaning that the possible customer has exited from the funnel at some time before the purchase. The further the prospect has moved on the funnel, the more it is important to understand what the cause of it was. There might be another more tempting offer from rivals or a change in the buyer’s intentions. (Schönen & Albers 2010)
The benefits of implementing a sales funnel are multifarious. One of the marketing & sales funnel's purposes is to classify people by their buying phase during the whole purchasing process. Typically, the funnel also points out the split of duties within sales and marketing.
(Kotler et al. 2006, 77) This way it is easy to divide the work load with sales and marketing.
Also, the information of the target prospect is open for everyone. Nowadays sales can see the whole track of a certain prospect all the way from the very first visit on the website or other contact. The see-through information available for everyone will allow sales ang marketing to support each other’s and thus be able to develop relevant tools, guidance and messaging to boost the company’s revenue while improving customer loyalty. (Toman, Adamson & Gomez 2017)
17 2.1.2. Main issues between the co-operation
It is quite unanimous in literature that the lack of follow-up of marketing leads produced is one of the key issues between sales and marketing (Kotler et al 2006; Churchill, Ford & Walker 2003). Marketing is supposed to produce high quality leads for sales, but then sales complain about the lead quality in which marketing responses by blaming the follow-ups that have been poorly handled. this will put a wedge between these two main functions in a business effecting to the whole organization. (Homburg et al. 2008).
It has been studied that up to 79 percent of the leads created by marketing will not ever turn into paying customers (Pipedrive 2020). This indicates that either marketing is wasting time for non- profitable actions way more than what would be acceptable, or there is something else obstructing the successful lead management. Oliva (2006) points out that it is very common that sales reps will not investigate further the leads they receive from marketing and rather just skips them because they feel that the potential in marketing qualified leads is weak.
Kotler (2006) has explained that in the very beginning, most companies do not have any marketing operations. They might adapt ideas from sales, managers or co-operate with some marketing agency, without the systematic contribution to marketing. It has been highlighted that at that point all the marketing activities are one with the sales. As companies grow more successful and larger the need of marketing is usually recognized. The target for next level marketing will turn to segmentation, targeting and positioning (Kotler 2006).
This usually means that next to already existing sales department there is now another department with its own missions. Marketing will usually start competing with sales for funding, which will arise disagreements (Kotler 2006). Also, the sharing of workload might turn out to be very difficult since drawing the line between sales and marketing tasks is nearly impossible in some cases. Marketing will eventually grow its influence over other departments such as product development, finance and manufacturing. The influence does not usually reach up to the corporate level. Though there are some exceptions such as Coca Cola, GE, IBM and Microsoft, just to mention few. (Kotler et al 2006)
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There are still several conflicting views on the factors behind the differences between sales and marketing. For marketing automation, the problems with marketing and sales can be discussed in two categories. Those that arise from the different IT systems in use within the departments, and those that arise from the lack of collaboration. (Heimbach et Al., 2015)
IT system problems are those of integration between two different types of software, which are used in very different ways, due to the different requirements of the departments. Sales systems are built for managing the customers’ information and interactions with sales people. Marketing systems are more focused on delivering the marketing (mass) message and targeting a pre- defined segment. (Heimbach et Al., 2015)
The issues that arises from the lack of collaboration are not that easy and straight forward to fix.
By raising the degree of alignment is the only way of pushing sales and marketing cooperation to the next level. This could be accomplished by analyzing the characteristics of the sales opportunities and focusing on them. Both departments should base their activities on the same objectives. (Atteya 2012)
Collaboration problems are considered to be the most evident in lead generation (Churchill, Ford & Walker 2003). If there is no collaboration between departments, no amount of automation will provide better leads. The productivity of sales is improved only when marketing automation offers sales with only the highest quality leads (Grossberg 2016). If there is no mutual understanding on what is a good lead and what is not, thus the adaptation of the automation system cannot be utilized. (Järvinen et Al., 2015) D’Haen & Van den Poel (2013) argues that the sales leads are often assessed on the basis of guesswork or intuition, leading to resource waste and potential sales losses. It takes salespeople up to 20 percent of the time to choose prospects, which leads to ultimate inefficiency. (D’Haen & Van den Poel 2013)
In too many companie sales and marketing feud like Capulets and Montagues. – Kotler, Rackham and Krishnaswamy (2006, p. 68)
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Patterson (2007) indicates that the lack of amity between sales and marketing could be resolved by concentrating on a customer centric approach by focusing on customer journey to align the departments strategies. Customer journey should be planned to as much detail as possible in order to achieve the highest efficiency and best outcomes. This would also help to divide the work and give a consist picture of responsibilities. (Patterson, 2007)
Marketing should learn from sales people how to better understand customers’ needs and problems. In this way, both departments could evolve out of the product centricity and focus on the solution and customer-based aspects. Differences in thought worlds between marketing and sales have been found to be a disadvantage in the co-operation of marketing and sales. If one department is highly product centered and another is customer centric it will harm the overall business. It is not advisable to completely assimilate the divisions but creating the common path and working together will lead the way to success. (Homburg 2007, Patterson 2007)
2.1.3. Benefits of the alignment
Vainu (2019) has built a very comprehensive list of the benefits of the sales and marketing alignment. They saw three key points of the benefits. First, they listed the ability to gain more high-quality leads from marketing. The second part was about the sales people’s higher motivation to work on the leads with improved equipment such as the data offered. Both of the first and second parts will lead to a better employee satisfaction throughout the organization.
The final point in the alignment is the increased ROI within both departments, leading to higher revenues. (Vainu 2019)
According to a study companies that are best-in-class at aligning marketing and sales experienced an average of 20% growth in annual revenue,
compared to a 4% decline in laggard organizations (Oracle 2020)
Studies have shown great results of the sales and marketing alignment. For example, brands with well aligned sales and marketing achieve up to 25 percent quicker growth within three
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years. Also, when looking for the same period, the profit growth is up to 27 percent more.
(Salesforce 2019) As sales and marketing begin to speak the same language and start the deeper level of cooperation they will be able to define the common service level agreement, and thus create way better customer satisfaction. (Salesforce 2019)
What it means to create better growth with the alignment? The growth for the business starts from a way how to set measurable goal that both sales and marketing agree upon and focuses on. The common mission and vision of the future is crucial and should always be defined. The growth comes from a well streamlined and cost-effective actions on the lead generation. The lead generation process will allow the full tracking, measurement, grading and most importantly follow up on all possible prospect and customers of the company. The success will be built upon the data alignment of the used systems. These systems include for example CRM and marketing automation with possible extensions to some other systems that can contain for example some sales or marketing materials. (Vainu 2019)
2.2. Marketing automation
The phase in the marketing departments is nowadays faster than ever and the requirements are becoming higher year by year. One of the key concepts to improve efficiency in marketing is to automate as many processes as possible. Marketing departments are driven by low recourses and yet targeted with high demands for internal accountability. To tackle that fight marketers, have to rely on technology now more than ever to perform well. (Biegel 2009)
This part of the theory reviews the former literature about marketing automation. First the definition of marketing automation is defined. After that follows the features and the use of marketing automation. Next is challenges and requirements, and the last part reviews the best practices and benefits for business.
21 2.2.1. Definition
Today’s digitally connected world has modified the perspective how to do marketing, build brands and internationalize the business. The main driver for the digitalization and ongoing transformation can be found from the software and hardware technologies. (Vadana, Torkkeli, Kuivalainen, & Saarenketo 2019) Digitalization enables companies to offer simplicity, convenience and relevance to their customers who also will expect nothing less nowadays (Hänninen, Smedlund & Mitronen 2017). Digitalization is not only beneficial to customers, but to companies also. Kindström and Kowalkowski (2014) states that digital technologies are enabling companies to improve the service quality and by the same time reducing the operational costs. As customers nowadays will require more quality information before contacting sales, the implementation of marketing automation is nearly indispensable for big companies in order to be able to answer to the customers’ needs. Putkinen (2014) states that the biggest driver for the increasing demand for marketing automation relies on the changes of the customers buying behavior.
The origin of marketing automation relies in email marketing. The rise of email marketing was the very beginning for marketers to be able to improve the efficiency in such ways that non-had seen before. Nowadays marketing automation has grown to include way more than just email marketing. For example, content creation and content management can be done in most marketing automation platforms. Also, the web analytics are usually integrated in marketing automation platform. (Del Rowe 2016)
Marketing automation’s main idea is to automatically show the ideal messages to potential customers in the right time. It will allow marketers to personalize the customer journey in very personal level and so to develop the relationship with the customer. (Oracle 2020) The main idea and process behind the marketing automation is shown in the following figure.
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Figure 6. Marketing automation process. Adopted from Heimbach et Al., 2015.
The figure describes the basic principles within any marketing automation system. The customer journey in the system starts from the source which is providing the customer information. Next step in the figure is “triggers”. These triggers can be any kind of actions that the company desires to track. Some very common triggers can be whitepaper, tutorial or video uploads, klicks to CTA-links or newsletter subscriptions. These triggers can be individually scored, which allows companies to create lead scoring models to improve the marketing & sales funnel. After triggers comes the workflow stage. The workflow is personalized based on the source, customer behavior and trigger(s). If the company gets the wanted results from workflow they can transfer the customer to sales as a marketing lead. After investigating the lead sales department will decide whether to follow the lead or drop it. Thought the whole system there is ongoing data analysis which determines where the customers journey and provides performance analytics.
(Biegel 2009; Järvinen et al. 2016; Wood 2015) 2.2.2. Features
Marketing automation software integrates multiple systems as under one platform. Those can be email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, SEM and analytics into one system (Burka
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2015). Marketing automation’s capabilities constructs the key factors for nowadays companies’
marketing functions (Swieczak 2013).
This study will build the base for marketing automation features according to the classification on Buttle and Marklan (2015). Buttle et al (2015) have divided the features within five categories and multiple sub categories. The first category consists of email marketing features. Second category contains campaign management features. Third group is the biggest one including 6 different content and social media marketing features. Fourth group involves lead management features. Last group is about marketing analytics. (Buttle et al 2015) The figure below aggregates all 5 categories with 19 features.
Figure 7. Marketing automation features. Adopted from Tobon 2017.
2.2.3. Use of marketing automation
By using marketing automation, companies can do way more than any amount of people could ever do. Such enormous data collection and customization can only be done with machines and can never be achieved by humans. (Linton 2012; Wood 2015) Marketing automation combines
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all three dimensions of time: Past, current and future. Automation software is able to store massive datasets of the customers’ history. Also, the current usage can be seen in real time.
When combining the data from history and current activities, the software can predict the future intentions. This all can be track within not just current customers, but with anyone who is identified. Every action in the automation software happens in real time in each touch point the system links to. (Heimbach et al. 2015; Wood 2015) The set of rules within the system as well as the level of automation can be set by the software user (Ioana 2016).
Marketing automation comes in handy within two parts of the marketing mix activities: pricing and promotion. When considering pricing, it is clear that with the help of automation it is easier to set the price for the individual customers (Heimbach et al. 2015). If someone is constantly visiting the website and has several previous pucrases, it might not be ideal to offer big discounts, but when trying to acquire new customers the big discount might be the only way to success.
The second and probably the most dominant marketing mix activity that can be based on marketing automation is promotion. Companies are able to offer individualized content for customers and suspects. Some examples of customization are landing pages, campaign pages, web banners and offers. (Heimbach et al. 2015) By individualizing the content the company becomes more customer-centric and is able to grab the attention of the wanted audience. This way the audience is able to pull the interesting pieces of content created by the company to their hands. (Wood 2015) Nowadays customers will easily get lost in the tremendous amount of content available. If the company will do marketing by pushing all the content to all possible customers and suspects, that might lead the marketing to negative results in the end.
In the basic usage of marketing automation, the software user can create multiple paths in to the system for the users by combining data from multiple sources. Aquino (2013) points out that the software’s ability to operate in various channels simultaneously should be exploited. As marketing automation combines all user data together, it is possible to bridge the inbound and outbound marketing (Marketo 2018; Ginty, Vaccarello, & Leake 2012, 182).
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One of the key aspects in marketing automation is to recognize the visitor in the website in order to be able to track the usage and in other words visitors’ interests. Cookies and IP addresses are the key to recognizing the visitor. (Swieczak 2013) Marketing automation cannot recognize the visitor unless the visitor has already given some data of him/her self. Although the visitor data can still be collected. (Real Magnet 2016) Usually the collection of personal data will be done by gating some content behind a form. (Järvinen et al. 2016) This might be for example a registration for a webinar or leaving the contact information in order to receive a sample. This kind of approach is called active process, meaning that the idea is to directly confront the visitor and present a question (Järvinen et al. 2016). When collecting customer data in active process, it is recommended to be done by progressive profiling. In progressive profiling the form will be pre-filled for the next time the visitor desires to open some gated content. In the best practices the progressive profiling will be done gradually increasing the level of information asked and details. (Todor 2016)
2.2.4. CRM aspect
As already mentioned in literature review there is no solid understanding in current literature whether the marketing automation is just a part of CRM or in some cases the whole CRM (Greenberg, 2010). In generally today’s companies tend to integrate their CRM software to marketing automation software. That approach is also the most recommended in literature during last decade. (Dworkin 2016; Redding 2015; Wood 2015)
This paper will also consider the marketing automation to be a part of CRM, but not replacing it. It has been stated that CRM and marketing automation integration is very necessary for companies to create comprehensive sales and marketing funnel (Ginty et al. 2012). Järvinen et al. (2016) verifies that the integration however is not that simple. The integration requires the integration between two functions, sales and marketing, and also an IT integration between two software. Multiple software producers offer nowadays the both marketing automation and CRM platforms as a pre-integrated solution. (Oracle 2020)
26 2.2.5. Lead management
Many companies are struggling with lead management and problems such as inconsistent lead quality which will lead to missed sales opportunities and lack of sales. According to Marketo (2017) lead management is a marketing process that focuses on acquiring new leads, nurturing and evaluating those and eventually giving the leads to sales. The main idea behind the lead management is to provide sales ready leads for sales department and thus ease up the workload in sales. This will happen only if the leads are high quality ones, and actually will lead to a deal.
If sales people have to spend their time by following bad quality leads, their time will go waste and the sales outcomes will decrease. (Redding 2015)
Marketing automation includes several features for the lead management such as segmentation, lead scoring, lead nurturing and CRM integration. With the help of marketing automation everything can be tracked and documented, such as the customer path, and thus it results in better lead qualification and follow up. (Redding 2015)
In order to understand lead management process as a whole, the term lead should be defined first. Lead is an interest toward company’s products or services, which is expressed and in generally recorded to marketing automation system (Monat 2011). Compiling a more specific explanation of a lead is very difficult since the definition varies between industries and even from salesperson to another. A prospect becomes a lead after a lead qualification process. In an ideal world each contact would also be contacted before they would transferred to leads.
(D’Haen and Van den Poel, 2013)
Today’s B2B companies are struggling with determining the prospects that should be transferred to leads. The meaning of a lead qualification is to understand and identify which prospects would have the highest probability for successful sales. (Järvinen et al. 2016; Long, Tellefsen and Lichtenhal, 2007) Coe (2003) has defined a four generally used parameters for lead qualification, when describing the universal attributes that are not company nor industry specified. The parameters are explained in the following figure.
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Need Budget Authority Timing
What is the need of the buying
company?
Would the offering satisfy the potential customers’ needs?
Does the potential buyer have budget for the offering?
Does the contact have enough
decision power over the purchase?
How long time the buying process and buying decision take?
Figure 8. Parameters for lead qualification. Adapted from Coe, 2003.
When looking at the figure XX it is already easy to extrapolate how the lead qualification is not as easy as one would thought. Though, Monat (2011) has highlighted that each error in lead qualification process is a waste of recourses and a loss in a sales revenue. The lead qualification should open a clear way for a company towards the most profitable leads. (Long et al. 2007) There are two main challenges in the lead qualification process. To begin there is no consensus between companies of the characteristics of high-quality leads as the lead features may vary and be very different. After a company has discovered and defined its lead features it should be able to get the needed information (presented in the figure above). But in generally that kind of information is not available, especially before the first contact to the lead. Thus, objectively identifying the characteristics for the high-quality lead and gathering the needed information is a big challenge in B2B field. (Monat 2011)
The poor lead follow-up within sales has been identified in many studies. Biemans, Brenčič, &
Malshe (2010) pointed out the dissension between marketing and sales; sales will criticize lead quality while marketing will criticize the lead follow-up skills. Sales people often think that leads are poor quality and will not generate profit enough to be worth the time they should spend (Oliva, 2006). Sales people will conduct a personal evaluation for the leads by going through
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them quickly and deciding whether to continue to work with it based on just a personal feeling.
This is one of the reasons why proper lead qualification process is much needed. It has been studied that customers that would be willing to buy are constantly lost due to lack of qualification (Hasselwander 2006).
It has been noticed in literature how up to 70% of marketing qualified leads will be ignored by sales representatives (Marcus, 2002). Also, multiple studies have referred to term “sales lead black hole” which represents the poor lead management from sales departments side (Hasselwander, 2006; Sabnis, Chatterjee, Grewal, & Lilien, 2013). Thus, today’s companies should pay extra effort in order to improve their lead management.
Redding (2015) claims that if marketing department would be capable to produce better quality leads the follow-up from sales would be improved. According to Marketo’s research only 25%
of new prospects are ready to be contacted by sales, and 20% of those contacted ones will be active opportunities. This means that 5% out of new prospects are actually sales opportunities.
(Lager 2009) At this point the better and more transparent use of marketing automation might come in handy. With the help of marketing automation leads could be qualified and then divided into groups based on the quality. Grouping between a couple of different stages would help sales to understand leads potential and the time would not be wasted with non-worthy leads.
As the goal is to create a synergistic relationship between sales and marketing functions (Linton 2012), the whole lead management process can be improved by allowing sales to see the whole customer journey from the very beginning (Wood 2015). The data from marketing automation platform will give sales a clear view of the prospect’s actions within each channel (Todor 2016).
By improving the integration within sales and marketing in previously mentioned ways marketing will get more responsibility in the overall lead management process. The improved lead management will only generate from the deeper understanding and co-operation between marketing and sales functions since neither of those can improve the lead management system alone. (Putkinen 2014)
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Lead nurturing is an excellent way to prepare high quality leads for sales. In generally lead nurturing means lead follow up after the company has acquired the information of the contact.
In this follow up process the leads will be targeted with personalized content, and their actions will be tracked in order to learn more about the contact. (Rose & Pulizzi 2011; Järvinen et al.
2016) Lead nurturing is connected to lead scoring as the idea is to encourage the potential customers to move forward in the buying process. As the lead moves forward in the lead scoring, the content might be different too, since the content is delivered based on the profile information and online behavior. (Järvinen et al. 2016) Michaels (2008) describes lead nurturing as a relationship- building approach supporting buying process with timely relevant information in order to prepare the prospect to be transferred to sales.
Good leads can be created with multiple different actions. Each company should aim to find the most suitable and profitable lead sources in order to be able to allocate their resources well. The strategy should define which sources to use. Each lead source should be tracked and well analyzed with on-going analytics. This way it is possible to minimize the waste of recourses in lead creation. (Jolson & Wotruba 1992) Jolson et al. (1992) have listed three categories for lead sources: prospect-initiated leads, company-initiated leads and salesperson-initiated leads.
Prospect-initiated leads refers to leads from existing customers, for example reorders or rebuys.
Company initiated leads refer to leads that are generated through marketing activities. The last group, salesperson-initiated leads, consists of leads that are results of salespersons’ efforts.
Usually these leads can come from cold calls or an idea-initiated contacts. (Jolson et al. 1992) For this research the company-initiated leads are the most interesting group of leads, since data- based marketing could have the most effort to especially that group.
2.2.6. Best practices & benefits for the business
As one benefit of marketing automation is saving time when doing fewer manual tasks (Putkinen 2014), it is clear that marketing department can spend more time with strategic planning (Biegel 2009). Heimbach et al. (2015) pointed out how the key to success when adopting marketing automation is the efficiency and creativity in the usage. Improved workflow within processes is
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one of the outcomes of marketing automation adaption, which indeed lead to overall efficiency (Keens & Barker 2009). This will also lead to improved efficiency in decision making, and again save a lot of marketing departments precious time (Wood 2015, Buckling 1998). The figure 9 points out some of the most glorified benefits of marketing automation.
Figure 9. Benefits of marketing automation.
With the help of marketing automation multiple things can be automated and the marketing automation can be integrated with other systems (Lamont 2015). By connecting marketing automation software directly to CRM, it is possible to move leads from one software to another within no time. This will allow sales to act quicker and contact the prospects within a short period of time. When the prospects are automatically classified the efficiency of sales is increased, and each salesperson will know that the lead is trustworthy and worth to spend some time. When classifying contacts, the marketing automation system will also sort out non- qualified contacts. (Järvinen et al. 2016)
The improved communication with customers is also one of the key benefits for the company with marketing automation. When building up the processes such as lead management or
Benefits of marketing automation Improved efficiency
Integration with other systems
Cost savings
customixing content Better visibility
Higher accountability
Marketing and sales allignment
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marketing campaigns, it is very crucial to understand the propriate amount of the customer knowledge that can be used. Ginty et al. (2012) highlights how one should not be too general and bore the contact but being too detailed is not good either since the contact might be scared of that. The data collection and analytics will give marketers an access to a lot of information and the message can be highly personalized (Heimbach et al. 2015), but in every case that is not appropriate. If the contact is a loyal customer, the promotion can be very different when comparing to someone who is yet a suspect.
For most companies the interest towards marketing automation adaption increases due to the possibility to optimize marketing costs (Swieczak 2013; Bagshaw 2015). Heimbach et al. (2015) rationalizes the cost optimization based on increased conversion and retention rates as well as progressive cross- and up-selling. The system can also improve decision-making extensively.
All that will lead to increased ROI in marketing hence increasing sales (Heimbach et al. 2015) With the help of marketing automation platforms, it is possible to trach every single customer’s movement in web page. If this perspective of the scale of information available can be understood and utilized in the whole sales organization, the results can be beyond great. Yet many companies struggle to convince sales with the value of the marketing automation system.
Ginty et al. (2012) recommend that the sales could be convinced by first implementing the system to only the top sellers in the department. This “A team” would consists of the highest performers who also tend to be highly respected within the organization. After a short testing period, marketing should collect feedback from the A team, and do required improvements to the processes. After the testing with A team, it would be significantly easier to implement the system for the whole sales department. (Ginty et al. 2012)
When integrating the marketing automation with CRM, marketers will get more visibility to sales and thus be able to improve their decision making in strategic choices. Also, marketers are able to allocate their budget better, since they can see which operations actually brings profits for the company. (Kumar 2011) The visibility between sales and marketing is very crucial since it also can result in better alignment. (Redding 2015; Kumar 2011) When building a lead scoring model in marketing automation platform, and preferably combining it to CRM platform, the adjusting of lead scoring might not be easy and simple in the beginning. For that the co-operation
